Tesla just switched on the world's biggest lithium-ion battery in Australia

Elon Musk's Tesla has switched on the world's biggest
lithium-ion battery, in South Australia.

Musk had promised to build it in 100 days or give it
free.

The battery is designed to shore up the region's grid
network, which suffers from frequent blackouts.

HORNSDALE, Australia — Tesla switched on the world's biggest
lithium-ion battery on Friday in time to feed Australia's shaky
power grid for the first day of summer, meeting a promise by Elon
Musk to build the battery in 100 days or give it free.

"South Australia is now leading the world in dispatchable
renewable energy," Jay Weatherill, the state premier, said at the
official launch at the Hornsdale Wind Farm, owned by the private
French firm Neoen.

Tesla won a bid in July to build the 129-megawatt-hour battery
for South Australia, which has expanded in wind power far quicker
than the rest of the country but suffered a string of blackouts
over the past 18 months.

In a politically charged debate, opponents of the state's
renewables push have argued that the battery is a "Hollywood
solution" in a country that still relies on fossil fuels, mainly
coal, for two-thirds of its electricity.

Supporters, however, say it will help stabilize the grid in a
state that now gets more than 40% of its electricity from wind
energy — but needs help when the wind dies down.

"Storage can respond within a fraction of a second. It can
address those stability issues very quickly without needing to
resort to using large power plants," said Praveen Kathpal, the
vice president of AES Energy, which also bid to build the
battery.

Highlighting industry hopes for the take-up of battery storage,
Tesla CEO Elon Musk in July visited the site, some 225 kilometers
(141 miles) north of the state capital, Adelaide, hailing the
battery as "just the beginning."

The state has yet to reveal how much it is paying Tesla.

Weatherill came under fire last year after the entire state went
black following a major storm, and he raced to shore up the
state's grid with a $385 million plan, including ordering the big
battery and installing diesel-fueled turbines.

Kathpal, who is also the chairman of the US Energy Storage
Association, said South Australia's commitment to turn to energy
storage was an important step for the rest of the industry.